Last night’s game between the Nuggets and Lakers came with no shortage of subplots, thanks in large part to Nuggets guard Jamal Murray’s history of trolling and shit-talking in previous matchups. In December, he riled up Lonzo Ball and his teammates by rudely dribbling around Ball as the clock ran out. Last Friday, he…

One underappreciated aspect of Nikola Jokic’s much-lauded passing ability is the way that he shrinks the court for the Nuggets and creates easy buckets out of otherwise unlikely scenarios. What I mean specifically, in this case, is that the big boy can huck it downcourt from a mile away and set up easy layups and…

Late in the third quarter, with all their wings whirring and Nikola Jokic calmly calling the shots from the center, the Nuggets stretched their lead over the Clippers to 19. Tuesday’s game took on the shape of a blowout. If you want to radically alter the shape of a basketball game, add 7-foot-3 Boban Marjanovic to…

The Denver Nuggets have this acutely entertaining habit of hanging one million or so points on their opponents, and nobody is more central to that sort of offensive eruption than Serbian center Nikola Jokic. And tonight’s 134-123 thriller against the Bucks showed exactly why, as Jokic had one of the best games of his…

The Nuggets’ doughy centerpiece Nikola Jokic found himself in a mild slump to start off the new year, averaging just 10 points on 34 percent shooting through his first three games. Last night he posted a restorative 22 points, 11 assists, 12 rebounds, three steals, and a block in a loss to Golden State. The game was…

Entering last night’s game the Denver Nuggets ranked a disappointing 14th in offensive rating on the season. They finished last season fifth in offense, at 110 points per 100 possessions; from December 15 onward—the day they moved Nikola Jokic into the starting lineup as a center—that number was 113.7, the highest…

Nikola Jokić took over the Brooklyn Nets tonight, unleashing a career-high 41 points on 16-25 shooting to go with 12 rebounds and five assists. Though he fouled out with three minutes to play, and only played 31 minutes total, the 22-year-old outscored the entire Nets starting line-up combined:

With the Nuggets down five toward the end of last night’s game against the Wizards, Jamal Murray canned a three to make it a one-score game. As the Nuggets walked back to their bench following a Wizards timeout, Nikola Jokic grazed Scott Brooks with his elbow. Brooks immediately whirled around as if he’d been shot,…

The Denver Nuggets are fun. Nikola Jokic is very good. Paul Millsap is very good. Gary Harris is pretty good. There are other guys on the Nuggets who might turn out to be pretty good. It’s entirely possible the Nuggets will find their way into a playoff spot this season, because they play a brand of basketball that…

This morning ESPN dropped a long and richly detailed account of the circumstances that surrounded and led to Kyrie Irving’s surprise trade request, first reported Friday afternoon, in which he told Cavs owner Dan Gilbert that he no longer wants to play in Cleveland. It seems Irving’s dissatisfaction in Cleveland…

The NBA offseason is the best and wildest of all sports offseasons, and by a long shot. Even the deals that don’t get made are endlessly fascinating. To wit: In some parallel universe, a three-team draft-night trade got done that sent Paul George to Cleveland and Kevin Love to Denver.

Former Nugget and current Blazer Jusuf Nurkic smacked around his former team with 33 points and 16 rebounds last night. It was a career night for the 22-year-old big man, and one that all but assured his team will be going to the playoffs while the Nuggets sit at home and smart. But to say Nurkic killed the Nuggets’…